In 1863, the artist George Caleb Bingham captured the upheaval, uncertainty, and injustice that refugees faced during the Civil War in his painting General Order 11. This painting depicts civilians in four Missouri counties who refused to sign loyalty oaths to the Union and who were forced to vacate their homes and properties.

Whereas both the North and the South cavalierly believed that the war would end quickly and decisively, such was not the case. Instead, military tactics included banishing the residents of occupied areas to weaken the moral and tangible support that civilian communities provided to the military effort. Yet the governments in the North and South did not provide any comprehensive plan to ameliorate the condition of the refugees. And significantly, refugees tended to be women and children.

Nearly 500,000 civilians were displaced during the war. For example, in Alexandria, Virginia, approximately sixty-five percent of the townspeople vacated the...